Bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox lands in feds' crosshairs

U.S. law enforcement officials cracked down this week on the Bitcoin economy's biggest exchange, Mt. Gox, accusing its operator of running a money transmitting business without the proper license and freezing several of its key financial accounts. The move sent a brief chill through the Bitcoin community, though some enthusiasts shrugged it off as an inevitable consequence of the cyber currency's growing public profile . A few even defended the feds. "This isn't the government trying to kill anything," one commenter wrote on Reddit's Bitcoin discussion board. "This is them locking accounts because they didn't file the right paperwork." Mt. Gox is by far the biggest exchange in the Bitcoin economy, handling about 66% of all currency conversions. The drama started on Tuesday, when the U.S. Department of Homeland Security obtained a warrant to seize the contents of Mt. Gox's ...